The fabulous Trendard from Golden Gate Funeral Home and the Candy Cane girls rehearse a dance that will take place at a Christmas funeral.

On Sunday night when I finished watching Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, I decided to stick around to TLC and watch the Dallas-filmed special Best Funeral Ever. Boy, was I in for a delicious treat. You see, even though some of my favorite shows are what I would call excellent television, like Breaking Bad and 30 Rock, I just can’t help but love off-the-wall shows that sometimes make you question the very meaning of your existence.

That’s what Honey Boo Boo did to me, it freaked me out, it challenged me and then it enlightened me. Today I wonder how I ever lived without “redneckognizing” the way some people in our country live and how different some of their daily experiences can be to the rest of us. Thanks to The Learning Channel for the wealth of learning you constantly provide.

Best Funeral Ever follows the funeral proceedings at Dallas’ Golden Gate Funeral Home, and let me tell you, what we saw on the show was not a typical funeral experience. According to CEO John E. Beckwith, the Golden Gate experience is their version of the traditional African-American home-going celebration. Beckwith says, “We do not have generic funerals; everybody’s experience has to be different.” And as you’ll see here, different can be a little of an understatement. Obviously not all of their funerals include animals, fair rides and barbecue ribs. On their Facebook page the people at Golden Gate explain that less than 1 percent of the families they serve choose these unusual type of funerals.

That said, here are some of the most outrageous things I witnessed on Best Funeral Ever.

Professional Mourners – How did I not know this existed? Basically, these are people who are compensated to mourn at funerals. At Golden Gate this is taken to another level, as people attend a class and are graded according to their mourning capabilities. While this is the first time I’ve heard of it, professional mourning has been a common practice in some cultures.

Let’s take your deceased love one for a roller-coaster ride – For one of the funerals featured on the show the deceased ashes were taken in an urn to the East Texas Fair. There, many of the people involved in the home-going ceremonies took turns going on rides with the deceased. Outrageous and possibly one of the most fun funerals I’ve seen.

A closeup of the barbecue sauce fountain.

Dip your rib in our BBQ Sauce fountain – For one of the celebrations there was a barbecue sauce fountain in which, as part of the procession, you would grab a delicious rib and dip it in barbecue sauce. No, I am not kidding. The funeral was for the creator of Chili’s famous “baby-back ribs” jingle, and his widow seemed pleased with the very interesting proceedings.

How many pigs do we need at the funeral? - The answer may surprise you. For the baby back ribs funeral one of the organizers brought up the fantastic idea of having a couple pigs as part of the celebration… you know, ribs in their earliest form. It was all peaches and cream until the pigs decided they were not going to take part in this. I don’t blame them.

Flinstones-sized ribs make for a beautiful procession - Can you already tell this was one of the most elaborate funerals? As part of the ceremony, a dance troupe came in carrying these huge racks of ribs. Deliciously outrageous.

A casket decked out as Santa Claus sleigh – You read that right, for a home-going ceremony taking place around December the people at Golden Gate transformed the ceremony into a Christmas fest even coercing one of their employees into dressing up as a gingerbread man, when he was wanting to be an elf.

Even though most of the show seems outrageous, something that I did enjoy was the celebratory aspect of the funerals and how each experience was tailored to honor the memory of the deceased. Yes, it’s not your usual funeral experience, but it was the way that those families chose to celebrate the lives of their loved ones.

What do you think about these type of ceremonies? Is all this too much or does it show love for the deceased?

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News, reviews, nuggets and tidbits from the world of pop culture, including movies, music, TV, local and national celebrities.